Representatives of the Govern, the Consell and the Trasmapi shipping company embarked yesterday on one of the SeaBus crossings, a boat that links the port of Ibiza with Santa Eulària on a recently opened line that could become, according to the politicians, an alternative to road transport aimed at both residents and tourists.
Since July 15th it has provided 16 weekday crossings (eight departures from the city and eight from Santa Eulària) and eight crossings on Saturdays and Sundays (four departures from each point).
The aim is to “replace land transport, which creates a bottleneck, and become an alternative”, as explained Rafael Cardona, general manager of the Trasmapi shipping company, before setting sail from Es Martell on the 10am boat together with Xavier Ramis, general manager of the Govern’s Maritime and Air Transport, Cristina Barahona, manager of Ports IB, and Javier Torres, island consellar for Transport.
“Our intention is for it to run all year round, everything will depend on the economic viability and reception,” added Cardona, who also noted that usage during these first weeks has fluctuated, “due to the crisis and the lack of tourists, between 15% and 20% “. “We hope that as this service becomes better known, the figures will increase, because this line takes only half an hour” to link the two population centres.
Ramis, meanwhile, stressed that for this new line to be up and running, it has been necessary for the City Council and Ports IB to work together to rehabilitate the Santa Eulària facilities. The total budget was 240,000 euros for three months’ work ending on July 8th. “This will make possible the handover of all the works and the signing of an agreement between the Town Hall and Ports for the management of the port’s first line, which is Ports’ responsibility and which, if everything is completed as expected, will be managed by Santa Eulària Council”, explained Ramis.
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